Mike Johnson Gloats Over ‘Opportunity’ in Shutdown Job Cuts, Says Schumer ‘Handed’ Trump ‘Keys to the Kingdom’
House Speaker Mike Johnson gloated over the “opportunity” for the Trump administration to “downsize” the federal government after the Senate failed to pass a funding resolution prompting a shutdown – mocking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for “handing” the president the “keys to the kingdom.”
Russell Vought, the president’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) boss, issued the directive Tuesday telling agency leaders to begin “plans for an orderly shutdown.”
But in an OMB memo issued a few days prior, he signaled he was prepared to go further than the usual furloughs seen in past shutdowns by instructing agencies to prepare for mass layoffs.
Speaking to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday, Johnson mocked Democrats who he said had “allowed” the chance for the administration to “make decisions” that it would otherwise not be able to make without their votes.
“President Trump has said he could use this as an opportunity to further cut government, and turn some of those temporary furloughs into permanent job cuts. Speaker, can you assess what you are expecting in terms of the job cuts and how severe they could be?” Bartiromo asked.
Johnson replied: “Yes, the president and I talked about this at great length. A shutdown is very damaging for real American people who depend upon government services, it can provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we’ve always wanted to do.”
He continued: “So in a way, Chuck Schumer has now handed the keys to the kingdom to the executive branch under President Trump to do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do and would never get Democrat votes for them.”
Johnson added: “Now, Russ Vought is in charge, as you know, of the Office of Management and Budget, and it is his responsibility to look at all of this and make difficult choices. He gets to decide now what services are essential, what programs and policies should be continued, and which would not be a priority for taxpayers – that is what is about to happen and Chuck Schumer has allowed that. So from his political perspective, it is a pretty massive backlash and there’s a real opportunity for government to work more efficiently for people if those decisions are made.”
Watch above via Fox Business.
